In the beginning...

A lot of times people ask how this crazy life has become mine. So here it is...meet my crew.

In 2006 I got married to my best friend. We moved shortly after to his hometown of Jacksonville. It's a great little town in central Illinois. After much talk we decided to adopt. We went to a rescue facility in Springfield and roamed room to room. Deciding we didn't know what we want I sat in the floor of the kitten room. This thin black cat came out of her basket, licked my arm, curled into the littlest ball and went to sleep. Sold!!

Her name was Blackberry and she was very shy and scared. The entire way home we tried out different names. We stuck on Yusa. We're both huge into Japanese culture and it fit her.

Yusa adapted quickly to our lives. Her only flaw was when left alone she would sit and claw at herself. People terrify her but since our home was quiet she was happy as long as we were home. (I should mention that Yusa was attacked by something larger than her as a baby. She was 6 months old when we got her but she has scars under her fur around her ribcage of claw marks and she was front declawed.)

In 2007, when I had taken Yusa to her vet checkup he noticed her patchy fur, cut marks from digging and her outright fear of anyone who isn't familiar to her. So we discussed when she wounds herself and narrowed it down to Yusa has anxiety. Fabulous, my cat is crazy. Well, least that's what went through my head!

The vet had a plan though. If we got her a playmate who was younger then she could bond with it and it would help alleviate some of her anxiety. And, of course, he had just the one for us. Enter, Princess Isabella.

Now, I should have known within the first five seconds of meeting this little girl, I was cruising for disaster. The receptionist brings out a tiny 4 week old screaming and swiping calico kitten. She instantly attached herself to my sweater and swiped at my husband's face and connected. After her set of shots we brought her home. She was still screaming her little head off.

We let her meet Yusa and needless to say, Yusa was not impressed. Bella, as we have always called her, quickly became my husband's cat. She would perch like a parrot on his shoulder and hug up against his neck.

Sadly we learned Bella was found by our vet when she was approximately 4 days old. The receptionist bottle fed her and amazingly she lived. Bella though is not the healthiest of cats. From being bottle fed she never got important nutrition from her mother. She also lacks the understanding of how to be a cat. Then there's the small issue of she is pretty feral. Yep, of all the cats I could have picked, I pick the feral cat.

While Yusa and Bella didn't outwardly get along, oftentimes I would come home and find them.curled up together. Bella had gotten much larger than Yusa and become the bully. We often had to seperate then to keep Yusa from being injured since they would often fight.

We were pretty content with what we lovingly called "The girls", but there was still something missing. In January of 2011 I got a phone call from a friend. On her porch that morning was two puppies. Fearing they had been abandoned she called me. I went over and checked them out. They were sweet puppies and we checked around and they were reported missing.

The next day I went to the pound to see if the puppies had been reclaimed and they had. While I was in the back a lady came in and was checking out the dogs. We started talking and after explaining I was looking for a young puppy so The Girls could adapt she explained she had a litter at her rescue.

We met Abner, Baylean, and Bodean that weekend. Abner was small and outgoing, Baylean was pretty but she wasn't quite what we were looking for (we honestly had no idea what we were looking for) and then there was Bodean who was trying to hide in the back of the crate. His siblings were beautiful but there was something about him that just screamed "I'm your new dog!" We picked the dog terrified of us and named him after Dick Grayson, Robin from Batman. I just happened to misspell it on his adoption form.

When we got Greyson home, he was terrified of our cats. He was convinced he couldn't be away from me and he whined a lot!! Somedays I look at this peaceful being in my lap and am amazed since he was a hot mess when we got him.

Grey over the last two years has been a great learning process. Actually all three of them have been for us. I have spent countless hours cleaning up Yusa cuts from where she still to this day harms herself. Bella gets extremely ill once a year with upper respiratory infection. And then there is Grey. Somedays he thinks he's a cat. Somedays he thinks he's a dog. One day he will figure it out.

I'm thankful to have seen all three grow and blossom. We love them dearly. And they make our days fuller and brighter. Now that I've said that I'm sure I'll have to break up a cat fight shortly.

The picture is Yusa stretching out on her back in my arms.